What it takes
by KazeRogue
Summary: The new member of the X-Men seems to have a good influence on the team. But who is she?


What it takes  
  
an X-mas story by KazeRogue  
  
Disclaimer: The characters are Marvel's property, except for Yuki, who's mine.  
  
  
  
A dream. Simple thing. Complex thing. Depends on perspective. One simple dream of one single man has had the power to change legion lives. For better or worse? Peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants. A dream? Or naivete? A fata morgana, like a river in the desert, for that too many people had given their lives. Charles Francis Xavier had tried to drink. And now was choking on the sand.  
What is a dream without the dreamer?  
  
  
  
A friend. Ordinary thing. Dear thing. Depends on if you have one, or if you've lost one. Katherine Pryde looked at the framed picture of her friend and one-time mentor. Would he ever come back? Would he be able to escape Apocalypse's influence? Would he be her friend again?  
  
  
  
Love. Craved for thing. Impossible thing. Depends on if you are normal, or if you can't ever touch the ones you hold dear because you would swallow them whole and, in the worst case, leave only an empty shell of what once was human. Rogue put on her gloves, as she would have to do every morning the rest of her life. A life without human contact. A life without touch. A life without love.  
  
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'Xavier's school for higher learning' the sign read. The young girl sighed and grabbed her duffel bag tighter. This wouldn't be easy.   
A beautiful woman with dark skin and white hair opened the door, smiling.  
  
"You must be Yuki, we've been expecting you. I am Ororo Munroe. Please come in."  
  
Storm looked at the young girl that passed by her to enter the mansion. Her mutant powers, empathy and low telepathy, had driven her nearly mad because she couldn't shut down the invading thoughts and feelings of the people around her. Professor X had build a barrier in her head and now she had come to learn how to control these powers. Ororo could barely remember when the X-Men had been a school recently, and not 'only' world-saving superheros. Maybe the arrival of that girl would remind the residents of the original reason the X-Men were created.  
  
Yuki looked around wide-eyed once she was inside the mansion. Obviously, the Japanese girl hadn't expected the school to look like this, huge and expensive. Ororo took her by her arm.  
  
"Please, I'd like to introduce you to the others. This way."  
  
The girl took a deep breath, obviously insecure. Her waterblue eyes, that matched her long black hair perfectly, strayed around shyly. Ororo opened the door to the living room. Yuki looked at the assembled people, the current residents of the X-mansion. There was the Professor she had already encountered, a pretty young woman with hazel eyes and hair, next to her, a tall, strong man with black hair, a beautiful woman with a white streak down her otherwise auburn hair, a bluefurred...elf, a girl with bones growing out of her body and a tall handsome man with strange eyes in a trenchcoat. Storm introduced her to all of them and after a brief chat, everybody left to attend their own business.  
  
Yuki was showed her room where she unpacked her duffel bag. Then she sat on her new bed, trying to make herself feel at home.  
  
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Observing. You don't have to be a telepath to know other peoples motions. You just have to observe. And that was what Yuki had done in the last couple of days. Observing the X-Men in their allday's life, getting to know them better than any conversation could provide. Yuki was a calm person, shy and absolutely not self-centered. And that gave her the ability to respond to people better than many others. In the short time that she lived in the X-Mansion, she learned more about these people's thoughts, fears and dreams.  
  
Yuki sat at the kitchen table when Shadowcat sat down next to her. She looked at her friendly with her hazel eyes, smiling.  
  
"Well, already settled into here?" She asked.  
  
"Yes, thanks." Yuki answered, feeling that Kitty was in desperate need of somebody to talk to.  
  
"You know, you didn't quite pick a good time to enter the team..."  
  
Though one could take this comment amiss, Yuki knew that the other woman hadn't meant it as reproach, but that she was sorry that Yuki came there in a time when the X-Men couldn't be there for her like they normally would.  
  
"...with all that's going on with Apocalypse and... stuff." Kitty concluded hesitantly.  
  
"You are talking about this Logan, aren't you?" the girl asked carefully, trying not to push the elder woman.  
  
"I ...yes. He was -is- my friend, y'know. I thought of him ...dunno, he always seemed to be there, I thought he always would be, when I needed him, or anytime. What's the saying, you just know what you had when you lost it. I think that's what happened to me now, I lost Logan and I realize now what he meant to me. He was ...Logan. Well, I don't know how to describe it, you should know him. He was making that all seem having sense. He was making me want to be the best I can be, overcome all the obstacles I put in my own way. I'm afraid of what I'll become without him showing me the way."  
  
Yuki had listened to Kitty's words, knowing that she'll find out most if she didn't interrupt. But now, she locked Shadowcat's hazel eyes with her blue ones.  
  
"You said that Logan showed you the way, told you what to do. Would he have told you to give up on a friend? I don't think so. Think of what Logan would do if your roles were reversed. Would he let you down? Or would he fight for you, try to get you back? If you really were as close as you're saying, you have to remember him. That's why our loved ones are never leaving us, they're right here, IN us, like they imprinted themselves on our souls. You just have to listen to what they're saying to know what to do, what to feel. You haven't lost a friend, not as long as you can carry him with you, in your heart. And if you listen to what it's telling you, you'll know what Logan expects you to do."  
  
Kitty stared at the younger girl in amazement. She felt as if Logan had talked to her.  
  
"You ... you're right. I mustn't give up on him. He's still there, and I will get him back. Thank you very much... for listening ... and everything else."  
  
Kitty stood up and left the kitchen, ready to face whatever life would throw at her once again.  
  
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Yuki heard a rumbling that seemed to come from the attic, then somebody swearing under his breath. Curious but wary in the still strange household, she followed the noise to find Rogue at the bottom of the stair to the attic. A carton laid in front of her, it's contents spilled over the floor.  
  
"Can I help you?" Yuki asked calmly. The southern belle looked up, noticing her presence for the first time. Her strained features softened.  
  
"Yeah, thanks. That would be great. Dumb me dropped the carton."  
  
Scattered on the floor laid the Christmas tree decoration and Yuki remembered that the Russian called Peter and the fuzzy elf Kurt had bought a tree yesterday. So now was decorating time. Yuki helped Rogue to pick up the decoration and carry the cartons down to the living room where the tree was set up.  
  
In the hallway, they nearly bumped into the Cajun, Gambit, that Yuki knew little about yet. Rogue nearly dropped the carton she was carrying again while struggling for her balance. Gambit grabbed the carton to help her and muttered an excuse. Then, he turned around to leave the mansion, but not before Yuki could notice the painful expression written on his face.  
  
When they put down the cartons and started decorating the Christmas tree, Rogue's mood seemed a bit lower than before and Yuki noticed her glancing to the spot where she'd run into Gambit. Already having felt the tension between the two of them, Yuki couldn't hold back her question.  
  
"So, what's going on between the Cajun and you?"  
  
Rogue looked up startled and blushed that somebody had noticed her special relation to Gambit.  
  
"Well...we were involved, for a while, but that's ovah. Ah ...WE broke up jus' recently."  
  
"Why?" Yuki asked, prompting the elder woman to tell the whole story. Rogue swallowed, but started to speak nonetheless.  
  
"Well, our relationship was nevah easy. We loved each other, but y'all know that Ah can't control mah powers, Ah once absorbed him when we kissed, and Ah nevah want ta harm him again. Then, the Professah played some kinda mind game with us, to make sure we are we. There, we thought Ah was gonna die and Ah told Remy that it would nevah have worked. Ah said it to make it easier for him then, y'know, letting go, Ah thought Ah was dying and Ah didn't want him ta mourn. But then, when Ah thought of it afterwards, Ah realized that we really didn't - don't - stand a chance. How can Ah possibly ask of him ta spend his life with a woman he can't evah touch?"  
  
Yuki said nothing, staring at her hands.  
  
"What's wrong, sugah? Please, Ah didn't mean ta sadden y'all. Jus' forget what Ah said."  
  
"It's not what you said." Yuki answered. "It's just so sad that everything is about touching and not about love anymore."  
  
Rogue stared at the younger girl incredulously.  
  
"You know," Yuki continued, "I always hoped that I would one day find somebody I could love -and who would love me- as much as my parents love each other. My father isn't rich and my mother has to work as well. My father told me that he often thought about what my mother's life would have been if she had married someone else, someone who could offer her a better life, and offers she had, believe me. But he would never change a thing about his life and neither would my mother. He told me he stopped wondering about the what ifs when he looked into my mothers eyes and saw there the same love he felt for her. Unconditional. It was then that he realized that he would hurt her more by NOT being there than he could hurt her with anything he ever did, or rather, could not do. You told me that you don't want to hurt the Cajun, but what are you hurting him more with? Loving him or leaving him? That is why I'm thinking it's sad that nothing is about love anymore, because without, we're nothing. And with it, I'm sure, we are able to fly, if we just dare to jump and try."  
  
Yuki looked up to see tears in Rogue's eyes. "Ah...thank you." she stammered. Yuki smiled, knowing that she had found another example of true love.  
  
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"Try harder!" The voice said in her mind.  
  
"I...a tree, I guess. Yes, a tree." A strained expression showed on Yuki's face. "But there's something else, deeper, hidden. A man, with a cape. And a bucket helmet..."  
  
"It's enough for today, we'll go on practicing tomorrow." Professor Xavier interrupted her. Obviously Yuki had, while she should read a superficial thought as an exercise, digged a bit too deep and actually read the Professor's real thoughts. And his emotions.  
  
"You're sad, desperate. Why?" she asked him innocently.  
  
"That is a burden I have to carry alone." The Professor sighed.  
  
"I thought we X-Men were the most important people in your life. Okay, so I'm new, but you told me that I joined the family when I joined the team. And a family is there to help it's members, no matter if they're the children or the head of the family." Yuki watched the elder man expectantly.  
  
Professor Xavier looked at the girl closely. She was a child, compared to him, and yet, she was willing to help him with all her might. Like the rest of his pupils. Xavier wondered which right he had had to bring this girl here, in a place where she would have to risk her life, every day. He wondered what his pupils lives would have been like if he hadn't pulled them into a fight that hasn't been theirs then.  
  
"It has always been theirs, from the day on they realized they were different. And, they would be dead, no matter if they had died from the lack of control over their mutant powers - like I nearly did - or at one of the legion occasions when just the X-Men prevented the world from being destroyed. Somebody HAS to save the world - again. And nobody would if you hadn't shown them the way. You know Professor, if you hadn't taken them in as 'students', there would be nobody left today to wonder what they're lives COULD have been." Again, the inexperienced Yuki had had no problems reading his mind. The most powerful telepath on earth definitely had to work on his mental shields.  
  
"Maybe you're right, child. But the original reason I created the X-Men wasn't to save the world from the villain-du-jour, I wanted to reach an understanding between humans and mutants, a peaceful coexistence. And look at the world as it is today. Magneto has his own country, the mutant hatred is at his peak level, far too many have died for my senseless cause - I should be dead instead of them - and now I also lost Logan to Apocalypse. Let's look at it clearly, the dream has turned into a nightmare."  
  
Yuki looked at him with sad eyes.   
  
"If you really think that, you yourself haven't understood what your pupils knew from the instant they met you, what made them stay. Professor, you can't expect the world to change over night, that happens slowly. But we aren't ALLOWED to let it down. Maybe it's hard, maybe we think sometimes it's senseless, has no future, but we mustn't give up! These are just minor setbacks compared to what the world would look like if there hadn't been someone who had stopped Magneto from gaining the world rulership time and again. So there is bad blood between humans and mutants, but at least the humans have a choice whether to like us mutants or not. And one day - I'm sure! - they will see who we truly are, ordinary people with not quite ordinary genes. But they will only see that if people like you and the X-Men show them! The dream is not dead as long as there is someone to dream it. And this mansion is full of those! And you made them dream."  
  
Charles Xavier couldn't help but feel ashamed that this little girl had just told him what he had taught his pupils for years. Again, he had proof for the fact that sometimes the pupil turns into the teacher and vice versa. Once again, since a long time, he believed in his own dream.  
  
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The Christmas presents had been handed out and now everybody sat together in the living room, enjoying each other's company. Shadowcat laughed out loud at something Nightcrawler had said and Rogue cuddled up to Gambit who said next to her, encircling her with his arms. The Professor hovered in smiling and content and motioned his family outside to watch the firework Colossus had prepared.   
  
When it was over, they all turned to head back inside, when they heard Yuki speaking up.  
  
"My friends, I wanted you all to know that I really enjoyed my time here, I learned to value each one of you as a formidable friend. But I'm afraid that my time here ends today."  
  
"What do you mean? You're going to leave us?" Ororo said, as shocked as the rest of them. Yuki nodded sadly.  
  
"I've fulfilled my mission here, and now it's time for me to head home."  
  
Suddenly, a very bright but not unpleasant light appeared around her body and she soared a few feet above the floor, extending her white, feathered wings. The young girl suddenly seemed older - more MATURE - than all of them together.  
  
"I came here because you asked for help from above. I'm your Christmas angel and I came here to show you that everything you asked for, you could accomplish yourself, if you just believed in yourself. And now, I have to go back, for I achieved my goal. Good bye, I will never forget you, X-Men!"  
  
With these last words, she flapped her wings and slowly flew upwards. The X-Men stood and watched, long after their angel had disappeared. They were sad to have lost one of their own, but they felt joy at the same time, and gratitude for what the little girl named Yuki had done for them.  
  
~the end~  
  
Note: Yuki is Japanese for courage and consists of the characters for being encouraged and spirit.  
Please excuse my style. You know I'm German and all, AND this story came from the heart, I wrote it down without thinking much. No plot - no clue :)  
I wish you all a happy X-mas'99! 


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